The only thing that stops the dust is the rain. It’s a sweet reprieve, but there is no middle ground. The land is either as dry as the Betty Ford clinic, or as wet as the ocean floor. Everything can be seen from the ridge overlooking Armadillo as John Marston gently bounces along atop...

Decided that i might as well post up a good guide of sorts for various budget builds of PCs for gaming.
Good guide for an extremely basic build, spend a bit more on a stronger GPU:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQtUWjgxrd8

PRICES CHANGE AND AS SUCH THE BEST BANG/BUCK COMPONENTS WILL CHANGE. ALWAYS LOOK FOR THE BEST DEALS, USE COMMON SENSE ON WHAT'S GOOD OR BAD, OR ASK FOR ADVICE IF YOU'RE UNSURE. This is meant to be used as a guide for the type of components to get and what they should cost - not a literal 'buy exactly this' thing.

All prices are from Amazon and are in USD. Due to SteamOS currently only supporting Nvidia, there are no AMD GPUs on this list despite usually being cheaper for the same performance. If you're not going to be using SteamOS, find the equivalent AMD GPU and see if you save money by going with it.

NONE OF THESE BUILDS INCLUDE WINDOWS, INSTEAD ALLOWING FOR A LINUX DISTRO & STEAMOS. IF YOU WANT WINDOWS, EITHER SPEND EXTRA OR BUY A DEAD PC WITH A WORKING KEY FOR CHEAP OFF EBAY.
All builds include the minimum specs needed to use steamOS and a graphics card powerful enough to make gaming enjoyable for a few years, however remember the more you spend the longer you'll get out of your components. All builds also include a wireless keyboard+mouse and a HDMI cable, allowing you to play from the couch. Simply add a wireless 360 controller if you want one and you're set.

All items are Amazon Prime where possible.
Last updated: December 2013 (Out of date, basic components are similar)

That would be the $6000 monstrosity my best friend keeps threatening to build. He keeps saying "This build will be future-proof for the next 6 years!" And I'm always like, "And in 3 years I'll be able to build something more powerful for 1/6 the cost!"

Scary part is he's got the income to do it, I'm just trying to keep his finger off the trigger.

Wow, that sounds like some impressive prices... I bought my custom built PC last year (around October). Unfortunately I can't break down the price for the parts as I bought it from an Australian website that essentially puts it together for you, but here's mine.

Please note: some of these parts I have no idea what they are/do, I was just recommended by the retailers as well as my friends to suit my needs (video games and multimedia).

Admittingly I was kinda being cheap with the HDD (as I only got 1 TB) but I'm going to upgrade the computer in the future with a few more hard drives and maybe even an SSD. I'm also thinking about upgrading the graphics card... I'm pretty happy with the RAM and the processor.

All up this was $1,844 AUD ($1,653.70 USD) which includes 24 months warranty, assembled for me and delivered with insurance. Does this sound fair at the time (October 2010)? Also, there was no operating system installed on it at the time, I had to do that myself to save a bit of money.

That would be the $6000 monstrosity my best friend keeps threatening to build.

$6k is easy mode, man. Check out the build.

Also just realized that if i cheaped out on my next car i could do a quad-titan build.
Only a little tempted.

Master_Craig wrote:

All up this was $1,844 AUD ($1,653.70 USD) which includes 24 months warranty, assembled for me and delivered with insurance. Does this sound fair at the time (October 2010)? Also, there was no operating system installed on it at the time, I had to do that myself to save a bit of money.

Sounds like a slightly more powerful version of mine. IIRC i spent close to $1350 after everything was said and done, but i built it quite bit after you and assembled it myself. Seems like a decent enough price considering it was pre-built.

Should definitely go SSD. Wish i could squeeze an SSD into the $500 build, but i just can't. Very worth the extra $60, though, even for only a 60gb.

You sound like you'll be doing exactly what i'm doing. Gonna grab a new SSD (840 evo 120gb) and a few new HDDs (2x WD 2tbs), reinstall a fresh copy of windows and install only the good games/programs at the same time as a GPU upgrade and damn good clean out + higher CPU overclock.
GTX760 combined with 4.8ghz should tide me over for another 2-3 years.

You guys should see what builds you can do. Maybe fill in some of my gaps, like a $600 and $1200-1400 one_________________http://i.imgur.com/uXwrTYA.jpg
Savage

I was interested in trying the SteamOS. Then I realized I could only play 13 of my Steam library games on it.

That's why a linux/steamOS dual boot is useful. Wine opens up a ton of possibilities, as does stuff like emulators.
I'm gonna try SteamOS soon. I'm hoping it'll take off - after seeing the mess that is Windows 8/8.1, we're gonna have to find something else eventually. Maybe we can convince google and steam to join up and make something.

UrbanMasque wrote:

I'm interested in this - and this is what I've put together - http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2keDW
I'm going smaller. Rather than price I've like something slim and portable but still powerful.

What can you help me out with? Got a build better/cheaper than this?

A lot of that looks quite expensive. The ram, for example can be cheapened a lot by going for a 2x4gb kit, something like the $77 crucial ballistix XT kit from newegg.
The CPU is a boxed one and thus should already come with a cooler. It's a crap one, but it'll do the job. Spending $44 on an intel one is pretty bad even if it wasn't a boxed CPU, as MUCH better coolers can be had for $25 or so.
Now, speaking of the CPU - there's no reason to get 4770S. You either want a 4670K or a 4770K. The unlocked ones are extremely useful, even if you don't want extra performance - at stock locks you can undervolt them significantly, producing less heat and using less energy. Another $30 for future proofing and/or less heat to deal with is very worth it, especially when going HTPC.

The Corsair SSD is also a bad choice. Although they're very good, being fast and reliable, the simple fact is that Samsung 840 evos are the quickest SSDs on the market and cheaper. $175 for a 250gb evo vs $230 for the 240gb corsair, the choice is pretty simple.

Otherwise, the motherboard, case and GTX660 all look good. You might have to modify the case a bit to get the GTX660 to fit well, but that's not too had. Tin snips and a file if you have to.

That slimline blu-ray reader is pretty expensive. You should be able to find one out of a laptop for much cheaper off ebay._________________http://i.imgur.com/uXwrTYA.jpg
Savage

I was interested in trying the SteamOS. Then I realized I could only play 13 of my Steam library games on it.

That's why a linux/steamOS dual boot is useful. Wine opens up a ton of possibilities, as does stuff like emulators.
I'm gonna try SteamOS soon. I'm hoping it'll take off - after seeing the mess that is Windows 8/8.1, we're gonna have to find something else eventually. Maybe we can convince google and steam to join up and make something.

With that out of the way, I'm excited to see how it turns out. If Windows breaks their pattern, (Good OS -> Shit OS -> Good OS -> Shit OS becomes Shit OS -> Shit OS -> Shit OS) I'll HAVE to switch over. I love 7, but I can't stay behind on Direct X upgrades forever, and I'll be damned if my monitor will ever see a tiled OS on it...

...although my poor little laptop might enjoy a lower overhead OS, and has been largely relegated to Youtube duties... Will investigate this option tomorrow on my day off, when I'm sober/alert.

I have a little netbook thing that came with Windows 8. The lower overhead would've been great for it.

Right around the time i discovered i had to go into the operating system just to get into the UEFI/BIOS was around the same time i decided Microsoft could go and get fucked.
Metro is absolutely horrible and i will never use an operating system that aims to prevent me from installing other operating systems on my own goddamn hardware.

At least the windows 8 drivers have a tendency to work on windows 7, at least in my experience.

UrbanMasque wrote:

I'll let you know when I start ordering components. I was going to start with the Motherboard and Case in Jan if not end of the month.

Remember to keep shopping around as you go along, good deals might pop up in random places. You might be able to get a good combo deal for a 4770k and, like, 8gb of ram or something on newegg.